Whiffet Squirrel

E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
Copyright, 1917, by Cupples & Leon Company
Whiffet, Skiffet and Skud were three little red squirrels who lived with their father and mother in a tiny brown house in the old chestnut tree. First, I must tell you how the Squirrel family came to live in this dear little house. You see it happened this way. Father and Mother Squirrel started out very early one morning in the spring, to hunt a new home as they did not feel safe any longer living under the old pine stump, with the children getting large enough to run about. They both scampered up the old chestnut tree at the back of the farm house to see if they could find a nice deep hollow that would make a safe home for their little ones. When Mother Squirrel had gone about half way up the tree trunk, and as she climbed around a big limb, she almost bumped her head against what seemed to be a brownish wall.
She peeped around the corner of the brownish wall and what do you suppose she saw? She held her breath in rapture for there before her bright little eyes sat the cutest little brown house resting right on the big limb. It was far more wonderful than any home that she had ever dreamed of. It had a sloping red roof and two little round doors. A
good sized porch jutted out in front and each little door was several inches above the porch. Mother Squirrel very cautiously placed her two front feet on the porch and listened intently but all was very quiet.
Of course the folks who owned the house might be still asleep or they might be away. She crept quietly to the first little round door and peeped in. She saw a cute little room entirely empty. “The family must be away” she thought. Boldly she peeped in through the second little door and saw another cute little room just like the first and also empty. Then she walked in and explored both rooms and found a sort of
cubby hole closet at the back of each. “What a fine place for storing nuts,” said Mother Squirrel to herself, “but it would be much handier with a door between the two rooms.” Then she walked out on the porch and looked around. The little house was shut in almost completely by